Ethereal
by SpiritLights14
Summary: "As long as the living remember us, we are never truly dead." What has become of her, now that she's been killed again? Is she gone forever, or does her ghost still linger somewhere, somehow...


**A/N: Hi! I'm sorry if my writing style isn't very good, but hopefully it'll be fine for my debut fic! Anyway, please enjoy the story.**

**Disclaimer: The Erin Hunters own Warriors, not me. If I did, poor Spottedleaf wouldn't have died again...**

* * *

StarClan was divided and weakened. The Clans were threatened. The Three were lost and hopeless.

And the Dark Forest was rising.

With an army made up of naïve, yet deadly Clan cats, Tigerstar, Brokenstar, Thistleclaw and the vengeful spirits of cats who had sinned in life lay siege to the Clans.

Sandstorm stopped suddenly, gazing skyward. "Look!"

"What is it?" Dovewing asked, skidding to a halt.

"I saw moonlight," she whispered. "It was only a scratch, but it must be a good sign!"

"Not for your precious StarClan." The cats turned to meet the source of the malicious sneer.

Dovewing's eyes met those of a ragged tortoiseshell cat, her face ablaze with hatred and hostility. Mapleshade.

Sandstorm raised her hackles in defence. "Who are you?"

"You don't know who I am, Sandstorm," she growled menacingly. "But I know you. ThunderClan ruined my life!"

"I have no quarrel with you." Sandstorm dismissed her stubbornly. "And I don't know who you are."

"I am Mapleshade!" the Dark Forest cat hissed. She leapt for Sandstorm, pushing her into the ground.

"I'm going to punish you," Mapleshade breathed in Sandstorm's ear. "I'm going to punish you for every blessing StarClan gave to you."

"Sandstorm!" Dovewing cried, rushing forward to help, but she was restrained by a Dark Forest ally gripping her pelt with deadly sharp claws.

"And I'm going to punish you for every blessing StarClan stole from ME!" Mapleshade roared, as she drew her claws mercilessly down Sandstorm's flank. The orange she-cat gasped in sheer pain. She writhed under Mapleshade's grip, and blood started to well where the matted tortoiseshell scratched her.

"You have everything I wanted!" Mapleshade reared her head back, her yowl laced with agony. "You have a mate that loves you; kits you've watched grow and thrive, the respect of the entire Clan! Why couldn't I have had all that?"  
Mapleshade's eyes glistened with rage as she mockingly sheathed and unsheathed her long, thick talons of claws. She grasped Sandstorm's neck in her jaws and flung her around like a half-dead mouse. "And you know what?" she hissed, looking daggers into Sandstorm's fearful eyes. "I'm ashamed to have been a Clan cat!" she screamed, raking at her with horribly sharp claws.

"Stop it!"

A ghostly tortoiseshell darted through the ferns in a starry blur, ramming into the Dark Forest she-cat and tearing at her with needle-sharp teeth and claws. Sandstorm, now free, gasped raggedly for breath, and tried to regain her composure as the newcomer cast Mapleshade to the ground.

"Why, Spottedleaf?" Mapleshade growled breathlessly as she dug her claws into the ground and rounded on her attacker. "She stole your love! Why didn't you let me kill her?"

"There was nothing to steal," Spottedleaf hissed. "Sandstorm made him happy, and that's all I truly cared about!"  
The Dark Forest warrior let out an enraged wail and barrelled into the StarClan she-cat. Spottedleaf struggled under the larger warrior's weight, her paws flailing, trying desperately to scratch Mapleshade. The Dark Forest warrior snarled, and in one swift motion, drew out her deadly, filthy claws…

* * *

_Am I doing the right thing?_

_I just attacked an evil warrior like an crazy mouse-brain. _

Spottedleaf struggled and writhed under the disgusting Mapleshade's grasp. Her claws were snagging the knotted, ragged fur in a panic, her teeth gnashing, and desperate thoughts and emotions whirled around in her head. In the midst of all the chaos, a calm mantra rang out in her head and pierced the madness like a beacon of light.

_Yes. This is the right choice. I don't care what happens to me. It will be worth it. For them._

She heard an indistinct growl, muffled by the sound of blood roaring in her ears.

And then her throat was slit.

Agony slowly crept from the corners of her mind until it magnified to the point where it shocked her whole body.

Mapleshade stood over the fallen medicine cat, evil triumph glowing in her eyes. Dovewing cried out in horror.

"Spottedleaf! No!" A shriek pierced the air and rang through the deserted forest. In a violent explosion of fury, Firestar burst from the ferns and grabbed Mapleshade in his claws, throwing the large she-cat back in an immense surge of strength. Sandstorm charged at the cold-blooded killer alongside her mate, slashing and tearing at her relentlessly with seething hatred coursing through her veins.

The two orange felines raked their claws angrily down Mapleshade's flank, managing to draw blood through her thick pelt. The malevolent warrior screeched and wriggled free of the ThunderClan cats' claws. With a bloodcurdling yowl, Sandstorm gave chase, and the black warrior holding Dovewing fled. They disappeared between the trees, their screams of wrath ringing through the trees.

Firestar whimpered and lowered himself to press his cheek against Spottedleaf's. Blood poured out of the fatal wound at her neck, drenching the grass below her and Firestar's own fur as he pressed harder against her body. She could feel his anger and adrenaline slowly ebbing away, to be replaced with hopeless despair.

"Please don't die," he whispered pitifully. Dovewing watched on helplessly, and rather awkwardly.

"I'm sorry," Spottedleaf's breath was ragged and uneven. "I said I would be there to welcome you to StarClan, but my time is up. I'm so, so sorry."

"No! Please stay! I need you!" Firestar wailed like a kit that had lost its mother.

"Firestar," The mourning ThunderClan leader looked up to meet the uncharacteristically kind voice.

"Yellowfang, please! Don't let her fade away." Firestar mewled softly, pawing at the elderly spirit.

"It was her destiny," Yellowfang's words rang with sadness. "Let her go."

"But she promised to wait for me in StarClan!"  
Spottedleaf cast one more look at him, filled with adoration and grief, and so many unspoken words passed between them.

"Fire will save the Clan again…" she sighed. Her eyes shone with pure love, the gift she had given Firestar when he received his nine lives. A soft gasp escaped her, her very last exhale, and she closed her eyes and faded away. Forever. Firestar collapsed to the ground.

An eerie wail rose up on the wind, and drifted away with the night's breeze.

* * *

Spottedleaf was walking.  
All around her, white light shone, devoid of any colour. There was no forest, no sky, no nothing.  
There was just white.  
She could hear whispers of long-dead cats in her ears, enchanting her, beckoning her to join them. Voices of fallen cats throughout time and space hung suspended in the void.

This experience wasn't so unfamiliar or daunting to her, even though she had no idea of where she was, or where she was going. Spottedleaf was alone with her thoughts.

She knew the battle was still raging on somewhere. She knew Firestar and Sandstorm were still fighting.

She knew she wasn't going to see the light of StarClan anymore.

"Hello…"

A louder, more direct voice startled her, and the tortoiseshell turned her head to see a pair of stormy green eyes staring into hers. She could recognise a vague outline of a body against the white light, but as the mysterious cat's fur was the same colour, it was hard to tell there was another feline there.

"I'm Mothflight."

Spottedleaf spoke. Her words sounded strange, and seemed to echo inside her head.

"You were the first medicine cat, weren't you? I've heard stories about how you found the Moonstone. It's an honour." She dipped her head. "Why are you here?"

Mothflight broke eye contact, and stared out into nothing. "I think the appropriate matter is what you are doing here." she mused, in her gentle, lilting voice. The words she strung together almost sounded like an ethereal piece of music

"I do not even know where 'here' is." Spottedleaf mewed politely at the non-existent ground.

Mothflight let a small mew of laughter escape her.

"You're well and truly dead now, aren't you? You're in a place beyond StarClan!" she exclaimed, as though this fact was blatantly obvious.

"Then…why are you here?"

Mothflight swung her head dismissively. "You could say I drift. I'm a drifter."

Spottedleaf doubted she was going to get anywhere with this cat. They walked on in silence, until the white light surrounding them gradually began to dim, and fade away. The scenery morphed into a beautiful place the tortoiseshell thought she would never see again. Fourtrees.

It was an amazing sight. There were no sign of the horrible Twolegs and their monsters who had devastated the land, initiating the Great Journey. However beautiful it was, it looked rather strange and unfamiliar in the state of its original grandeur.

The wind whistled eerily, the zephyrs swiftly flowing through the trees. More stars than in Silverpelt glittered in the night sky. The moon was full and unnaturally bright, casting an unearthly glow upon the four great oaks. Spottedleaf fluffed up her fur against the chilly air. Something about this place was…off. The young she-cat thought she saw a grotesque, hairless feline perched high in a tree, staring right at her with sinister glowing eyes, but upon blinking, she noticed it was gone.

"I remember this place!" Mothflight gushed. "It seems like so long ago that I lived in this forest!"

"Why have we come back to the old territory, Mothflight?" Spottedleaf murmured, sitting down and shuffling her paws.

The white cat exhaled heavily. "I believe this is where you'll stay. You cannot contact the living anymore. And even if you try, you'll never find StarClan." she said solemnly.

Spottedleaf met her empathetic gaze with glistening amber eyes.

"You'll be alone here. All of us who've left…_permanently…_exist on different planes." the WindClan medicine cat whispered softly. "I'd apologize, but there isn't anything I can do."

The spectral cat began to fade until her white pelt was well and truly gone. Her glowing green eyes were the last to disappear. The viridescent orbs were full of sadness for the deceased cat, and knowledge that she would likely never see another living soul, apart from the endless quantity of prey that resided in the otherwise empty forest. One last whisper echoed around Spottedleaf, so quiet she almost couldn't hear it; "As long as the living remember us, we are never truly dead."

Spottedleaf strolled slowly through the eternal night. A mouse scuttled under a fern frond, but she made no attempt to chase it.

_I wonder if Firestar will be okay in StarClan without me. _She allowed herself a soft purr. _He always needed my guidance_.

_I know I did the right thing. As long as they've still got each other, it'll be okay. As long as Firestar's happy, I am too. _

_I was never really jealous. Even if I stayed in ThunderClan, nothing would have happened between us. I was a medicine cat! It is against the warrior code for a medicine cat to take a mate, and I know all too well of the misery love has caused other medicine cats. But I'll really miss him. I always had to watch him from StarClan, just watch him get on with his life while I was stuck without him. In the end, he found who he was supposed to, and even though she couldn't see it at times, because of me, he loved her with all his heart. _

_I remember his leader ceremony. I gave him a life for love. It was agonizing, but in a way it freed both of us. Even though I'm well and truly stuck here, where I stay, I'll always love him. I regret nothing._

Spottedleaf curled up at the base of a tree, and drifted off into a dreamless, empty sleep.

"Hi, Sandstorm," Daisy murmured in greeting as the pale ginger warrior padded into the nursery. She was crouching beside the newest queen of ThunderClan and watching her sleeping kits, while at the same time trying to stop Brightheart's older kits from bothering the newborns too much.

"Hello!" Sandstorm said as brightly as she could. "Cinderheart, your kits are adorable! Lionblaze must be so proud."

Cinderheart purred. "Thank you. Brightheart's kits are happy that they've got some new playmates too, even though they're only a few days old."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Cinderheart!" Brightheart exclaimed. "Hopefully it shouldn't be too long before these _nuisances _are made apprentices- hey! Amberkit! Stop that!"

The grey queen giggled as Amberkit prodded her new denmates with a tentative paw. "They're so little…" the kit whispered.

In response to the jabbing, one of the three little kits opened her huge amber eyes and whimpered in discomfort. The silky tortoiseshell kitten shifted her tired gaze over to Sandstorm, and opened her jaws in a soundless mew.

Sandstorm let the tiny kit's faint, sweet scent wash over her as she crouched down to give her a lick.

"Spottedleaf…"

* * *

**A/N: I'm really sorry if a few characters seemed a little OOC. ****And as for the reason Mothflight's there, well, she's symbolic. From the small amount I've read about her, I thought she was the cat who was the most spiritually enlightened despite her Luna Lovegood-ness. At least, that's the impression I had of her. Thanks for reading!**


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